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Exactly. Especially considering that certain spell levels unlock the next rune level, as minor point differences in very similar builds would also effect rune levels.

Very good stuff. Nice article Scyber.

Definitely looking forward to see all the different looks max level players will have.

Quote from Nanaki_Son_Of_Seto

Thanks for the link..... That is pretty (for lack of a better word) retarded. How do they end the storyline without ending the universe completly? I can think of plenty of ways they could but they would all be (once again for lack of a better word) retarded. I really hope their plans beyond dont become WOD (World of Diablo). Also why would they leave us hanging about the character from diablo 2 if they plan to end the storyline? Thats like watching a movie with no ending, I want to know what happened. I guess we shall see.

I would agree with you until I saw the timeline they have on the D3 site. It goes back thousands of years. Theres plenty of backstory (such as the Horadrim capturing Diablo and the books) that could be turned into the base for a game. D1, 2 and 3 are just a small amount of time in a huge conflict between Heaven and Hell. And tbh, the story that you gather from the actual games is pretty weak, so they probably just want the opportunity to make their own story that involves Sanctuary, demons, and angels. They'll close out everything that happened in D1 and 2, and anything that gets brought up in D3, before moving on. I just pray for no more cliffhangers. And they wouldn't make two "World of" games.

Huh? @Diablo said "He's supposed to drop by next week." How would that not get people thinking that it would come soon?

Not to mention it went through a complete team change about 5 years into its production, and the 6 years after that is pretty standard for a Blizzard game.

Well the "sink" is that you actually need thousands of gems to make a level 14 gem. You upgrade gems by combining them through the Jeweler artisan.

I'm pretty sure it was the 2009 demo, as the thing I read about the Necromancer in D3 was that you found a guy in the desert, and it wasn't entirely obvious but your character describes him as a Necromancer in the quest text or something of that sort. So thats probably why it wasn't widely reported on, as most people didn't read the text when they only had 15 minutes on the demo.

Hopefully, as it would be cool to see what happened to him, but at the same time hopefully not, as I would rather see him as a returning class. Then again, if they aren't having the Barbarian in D3 be the same Barb as the one in D2, they would probably do the same thing for the Necro in D2, and as such the Necro itself could be a returning class even if we see the fate of D2's Necro.

Also, I would be willing to bet that the cut cameo is one of two things:
1. Referring to the D3 Barb no longer being the same as the one in D2 (which I don't know about as I think that quote is from before they announced that, but they could've been planning it for longer than that)
2. The Amazon, as there is concept art that is confirmed to be the Zon's homeland of the Skovos Isles, but when someone asked about it Bashiok said that it wouldn't be a location in D3. Obviously that would be a good place for a Zon cameo, so that cameo could've gotten cut along with the location itself.

Also, I'm surprised they didn't mention Gem Shrines as one of the shrines they would want, considering how much more important gems are in D3. It would actually be a good reward it seems like. But thats just me.

Quote from nickm83

Ok, so you don't consider it a learning curve if you can't get past parts of the game if you don't know what your doing. However, if you LEARN what you are doing, you can easily get past them. If this isn't a learning curve, what is it?

You do realize, a game that requires character building, but no matter what you do you can beat every part of the game without having to learn and adapt, has ZERO learning curve?

Sure, you can say its a learning curve. Even if it is, a learning curve that requires you to create a completely new character is obviously excessive. You can have learning curve where you're able to learn the class (if you're good) by the end of the leveling process, or at least during the leveling process, instead of the extremity of D2's "learning curve."

Gold economies actually damage areas of the game where learning curves are a factor. If you can only barter with your items, you have to learn what each item is worth in relation to each other. There's also an unmeasureable factor of how much each party involved in the deal wants/needs each others items. I've done plenty of trades in D2 where I didn't need any of the items involved, I just knew I was getting a good deal and could turn a profit by just trading, and trading again.

Gold economies you just say eh, I don't need this item, I'm gonna check the auction house. Oh look everyone's asking 10k gold for it, I guess I'll post mine for 10k. Yeah...that's a learning curve.

Yea, having it so people can just scam to get high quality items for low quality ones, because theres no good way to find out how much an item is worth, is clearly a better system. You shouldn't have to learn the economy by trial and error. You should just get what you deserve for having a good item. There doesn't have to be a learning curve for everything you know.

The other thing I don't like about a gold based economy is it becomes a game of hours spent grinding rather then quality of grind. If gold was actually a useful economy in D2 everyone would spend their time blasting through nm chaos as fast as possible and selling everything. How rich you are would depend upon how fast you could sell the most crap.

However with a barter system it is based upon quality over quantity. Running nm runs just to sell mass amounts of item would make you gold, but, running on hell would be the only chance for high runes, a potential godly rare, or some of the high end unique/set items. Knowing what items were worth picking up and not bothering selling every piece of trash that drops would net you far more profit, which is where a learning curve comes into play.

Again, how do you know that the best way to get gold in D3 won't be the best way to get other stuff? That would obviously be the best way to go about it, and would eliminate the problem you present. And like I said before, there doesn't have to be a learning curve for everything.

What do you mean, its impossible for me to grief you without pk? Believe me, I could come up with hundreds of ways to troll people and grief them without pk. As far as from the viewpoint of purely wanting to play the game to troll and grief people, I'd actually prefer no pk, because then you are completely defenseless against me. Any anti-trolling/griefing measures they put into the game can just as easily be used against you.

Let's examine a votekick system. I'm just gonna pretend max party is set in stone at 5, not really sure if that's true but just saying that to make a point. If I want to grief using this, I'm just going to make sure I'm in a party with 2 buddies. What would prevent us from votekicking the other 2 right before we approach an end chest or boss of a quest or some other point of significance? Sure you might not do it...but there's plenty of people who'd do it for a chuckle. You'd be completely defenseless against it. Actually now that I think about it, if any blizz reps read this...please include a votekick system for my enjoyment.

And how would that problem be solved if I could PK? If theres 5 people and theres 3 of you, that means it would be a 3v2 in your favor, and considering its actually a limit of 4 people in a game, it would be a 3v1. So yea, how is me getting killed along with not getting that chest/boss kill better than just not getting that chest/boss kill?

On the current mmo I've been playing, me and one of my friends actually sometimes actively set out to get people banned. Its simple. While grouped with people you say some cocky noobish crap that could easily be passed off as you just being an overall stupid person. When they defend themself you try to antagonize them into swearing, at which point you report them and they get banned. Bet they wish they could have just pk'd me after my initial comment instead. The point is, your not going to stop people from griefing and trolling, so why are you so against the option to just kill them?

Ok yea, if its simple as reporting someone and they get banned, sure. But if you've ever played WoW you know that Blizzard:
1. Doesn't just ban people for swearing.
2. Is able to look at what actually happened through chat logs, etc.

As far as pvp goes, sure its fun and has its place, but its NOT pk. PVP doesn't give you the thrill of pwning some random unsuspecting people. PVP doesn't ever give you the thrill of having to defend yourself from a pk attempt. I always thought the best thing about baal runs in d2 was when some random pk'er joined your game and made an attempt to wipe your run. And really...what did you lose if you got pk'd, 30 seconds of time, some worthless gold, and a kick to your ego, big deal. For me, the enjoyment factor out of succesfully wiping out a baal run, or the randomness factor of people making pk attempts at you, added enough randomness and fun to the game to more then compensate for the almost non-existant penalties of getting pk'd.(unless you were hardcore)

Great, so you like greifing. Most people, or at least a good amount of people, which fortunately includes the D3 team (even though Jay Wilson said that he thoroughly enjoys PKing, he recognized it as a bad feature) would disagree that the "thrill" of wiping a Baal run is worth the crappiness of having your Baal run wiped by a PKer.

I'm not really psyched at all about a ranking/record system. Its just a meaningless feature. When I played basketball when I was younger, I played it because I liked basketball, not so at the end of the season I could tell everyone I had 10 wins and 2 losses. Much the same way I play a game, I'd rather get some good laughs out of pk'ing a bunch of people, pwning a pk attempt that comes my way, or by having some fun arena matches. As long as all that fun is present, I'd be far more thrilled about the game then just having the designers say well, we stripped out pk, but to compensate we're going to keep your record for you now. Seems like a pretty crappy trade off, remove something that for many people was a large part of their d2 experience, and replace it with something utterly meaningless.

So you like having arena matches, but you don't like a designated arena? I don't really know what to say. Theres still going to be plenty of PvP, but its just separated from PvM. And how is it any more meaningless than in D2? You still get ears and now you get titles and other aesthetic rewards. I really don't see the problem.

Quote from Magistrate

Do you see that? Do you see that?! Two of our own members, how wonderful Just saying.

Awwwwww yea. Bash loves us. Clearly.

I'm sure it will have its own flair. We barely know anything about it. I wouldn't immediately jump to the worst conclusion.

I'm not saying I have anything against Jewels. I just don't think they're exponentially better than Gems. I think Gems are just fine, but of course I would welcome the return of Jewels as well. It just seems like you're saying that Gems are bad and Jewels are good. If thats not the case, then we agree.

Quote from maka

If "therefore, no magic", then why the hell give her a background in 'demonic magic'? just to give her a gimmick? that's what it is, isn't it? a gimmick.

No, because then theres a reason behind why she fights, and how she gets so good at what she does. Just like the Barbarian has "Hammer of the Ancients" instead of "Hammer" because his power is channeled through his ancestors.

Now you're just purposefully misunderstanding. What I meant was: as soon as you find a specimen of each type of jewel, you will never EVER find a socketable item that surprises you, that you haven't seen before; you've seen them all. All you can aspire to are more powerful versions of the ones you've already seen, but that basically give the same bonus (just a bigger one - Attacker takes damage of 100, instead of 7).

Quoting from the Wiki: "A Jewel spawns with 1-4 random magical attributes(...)". If you don't think that's more exciting and varied than something (gem) that only has 1 mod AND you already know what that mod is, then there's something wrong.

Well thats honestly what I thought you were saying, but whatever.

Anyways, yes, there would be more variety if there were multiple effects on the gems. However, my point about having to farm so you get the "+11 Poison Damage" instead of the "+10 Poison Damage" still stands. Yes it is more varied and exciting, but that doesn't mean that gems aren't still exciting. Just the fact that they'll play a part in every item, not just early game ones, makes me excited for them. Something doesn't have to be complex to be interesting.

Quote from Equinox

Since when did raising the dead become demonic?

Well according to Diablo lore, Hell is what commands the dead to rise. And Hell is ruled by demons. But either way demonic was a bit of a bad word, as obviously its different for the Necromancer as the undead he controls aren't the same as the undead you fight. I was more talking about filling the role of a "dark" character class.

No, jewels had multiple mods and they were random. As things stand, you're never going to receive a 'surprise' socketable. Once you get one of each gems, you already know what you'll be socketing throughout your entire D3-playing career.

What? Different builds require different gems, so you won't just be using one the whole time. And its not like it was a huge amount of variation. It was like oh, it might be 15 defense, or it could be up to 20. Really not a big deal, and in the case of D3 it would just make it so that theres more grinding for the best randomized gem in a system where you already have to get 14 levels of gems.

It's as dumb as saying the Monk is a 'Holy' class, or holy/light-influenced, but then not giving him any Holy damage or Holy spells. I think now you're just defending things just to defend them, now.

He does have Holy damage, because his archetype is Magic/Melee. The DH's archetype is just Ranged. Not Magic/Ranged. Therefore, no magic damage.